THIS WEEKEND Holiday
holdovers True Grit and Little
Fockers swapped positions atop the North American box office
as new releases were met with modest business. Kidpics suffered the worst
declines coming off of the New Year's holiday session while awards hopefuls
held up the best as audiences caught up on buzzworthy films getting the
most acclaim. Overall it was a sluggish session with the top ten slumping
to the worst showing in 11 years for the first weekend of January.

The Golden Globes snubbed the Western True
Grit but moviegoers sent it across the $100M mark this weekend
as the Coen brothers hit dropped only 40% in its third frame for a $14.6M
take, according to final studio figures.
Paramount's critically acclaimed drama rose to $110M becoming the first
film ever from the Oscar-winning brothers to join the century club. After
two weeks in the number two position, the Jeff Bridges-Matt Damon film
finally seized control of the box office crown and expects to keep the
momentum going in the weeks ahead, especially with Academy Award nominations
set to be announced soon.

Taking the silver medal after winning two golds was Universal's comedy
threequel Little Fockers which fell
48% to $13.5M raising the total to $123.7M in 19 days. The latest installment
is running 39% behind the pace of its predecessor Meet
the Fockers which remained at number one this same weekend six
years ago with a much stronger $28.5M which put it over the $200M mark.

The new Nicolas Cage adventure film Season
of the Witch debuted in third place with $10.6M from 2,816 locations
for a mild $3,769 average. Crucified by film critics, the PG-13 tale of
Medieval knights transporting an accused witch was the first release for
Relativity Media for its own production. The $40M-budgeted pic skewed to
an older male audience with 52% being men and 61% over 25. A poor C+ CinemaScore
grade indicates a rocky road ahead.

The action pic TRON: Legacy followed
in fourth with $10.1M, off 46%, giving Disney $148.2M to date. Overseas,
the tally for the 3D effects flick rose to $143.2M for a global haul of
$291.4M.

Audiences continue to find the ballet thriller Black
Swan which enjoyed the lowest drop of any wide release with
a scant 9% dip to $8.1M in its sixth weekend. The Fox Searchlight release
has collected an impressive $61.2M to date. With its incredible legs plus
anticipated boosts from the Martin Luther King holiday frame, possible
Golden Globe wins, and definite Academy Award nominations, the Natalie
Portman pic stands to reach a much bigger audience in the weeks ahead on
its way past the $100M mark. Swan will
add more than 400 theaters to its run on Friday putting it into over 2,000
locations for the first time. The unorthodox movie is becoming the "it
film" of the season going beyond the traditional arthouse crowd.

The Gwyneth Paltrow music drama Country Strong
went national after a platform bow two weeks ago and grossed $7.3M from
1,424 theaters for a decent $5,145 average. Critics were mostly unkind
to the PG-13 story of a washed up country singer trying to fix her life
up. According to studio research, 73% of the audience was female and 51%
was over 30. The CinemaScore grade was a moderate B+.

Paramount's The Fighter dipped 30%
to $7M and upped its total to $57.8M. With $6.6M was the family comedy
Yogi Bear which fell 46% raising the
sum to $75.4M for Warner Bros.

The King's Speech fared better slipping
only 18% to $6.4M for a $32.9M cume for The Weinstein Co. Playing in just
one-quarter of the theaters, the Colin Firth pic averaged a sturdy $8,462
from 758 locations, easily the best average of any film in the top ten.

Rounding out the top ten was the animated blockbuster Tangled
which dropped 48% to $5.1M boosting the total to a robust $175.8M. The
Rapunzel hit is now Disney's top-grossing non-Pixar toon since 1994's The
Lion King. Overseas, Tangled vaulted
to $179.3M for a new worldwide take of $355M. Add in TRON,
and Disney has pulled in a stellar $646M this holiday season so far with
just two films.

Sony expanded its Best Picture frontrunner The
Social Network going from 249 to 603 theaters but saw mild results
with $653,209 and $1,083 average. The cume inched up to $94.1M ahead of
Tuesday's DVD release.

The top ten films grossed $89.4M which was down a steep 38% from last
year when Avatar stayed in the top
spot with $50.3M; and down 26% from 2009 when Gran
Torino expanded to number one with $29.5M.

Compared to projections, Season of the Witch
and Country Strong both opened slightly
below my respective forecasts of $12M and $9M.

This column is updated three times each week:
Thursday
(upcoming weekend's summary), Sunday
(post-weekend analysis with estimates), and Monday
night (actuals). Opinions expressed in this column are those solely of
the author.